Article: Outcome Opening

Outcome, Tom Dingley’s collection of LGBT+ portraits, have the exact effect intended by the artist: to proclaim “It Gets Better!” Showing successful LGBT+ adults of all ages and occupations, Dingley’s portraits are a current photograph of the subject holding a photograph of themselves as a child. Each photo is captioned with the person’s job title or occupation. From political party members to filmmakers, student hopefuls to veterans of their craft, people of all ages, ethnicities and walks of life are shown in this brilliant collection. Dingley’s moving speech at the exhibition opening mentioned the strangeness of growing up LGBT+ and the value of being told that you are just as likely to become successful as anybody else. This collection of portraits serves as a reminder of this sentiment for young people of today. A highlight for me during the speeches was performance poet Dean Atta, whose two poems titled Young, Black and Gay and Therapy shared an important message about overcoming adversity, summed up the sentiment of the night.

LGBT+ people find success in infinite ways, and Tom Dingley’s beautiful book is a perfect example of one such successful person.